Meaning of 金
Definitions from CC-CEDICT.
- gold
- chemical element Au
- generic term for lustrous and ductile metals
- money
- golden
- highly respected
- one of the eight categories of ancient musical instruments 八音[ba1 yin1]
- surname Jin
- surname Kim (Korean)
- Jurchen Jin dynasty (1115–1234)
How to use 金
On its own 金 means gold, but it most often appears in words about money, like 现金 (xiànjīn, cash), 资金 (zījīn, funds), and 奖金 (jiǎngjīn, bonus). Example: 他得了金牌。 (Tā dé le jīnpái.) He won a gold medal.
Picture 金 (jīn) as a roof over a mountain of earth 土, with two little nuggets shining inside it. Gold is the treasure buried under the ground.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 金 (jīn) with 全 (quán, whole), which also has a roof shape but lacks the two dots and has fewer horizontal lines. Also keep the tone a flat first tone, not the third tone of 紧 (jǐn).
金 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Stroke order for each character
Open a character for its meaning, components and more words.
金 jīn · gold · 8 strokes
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Related words
Words that share a character with 金.
Questions about 金
What does 金 mean?
金 (jīn) means "gold; chemical element Au" and is used as a noun.
How do you write 金?
金 is made of 1 character: 金 (8 strokes). That is 8 strokes in total.
Is 金 an HSK word?
Yes. 金 is on the HSK 3 vocabulary list of the HSK 3.0 standard.
Is 金 the same as 钱 for money?
No. 钱 (qián) is the everyday word for money. 金 means money mainly inside compound words like 现金 and 奖金, and it sounds more formal.
Why do so many Korean names use 金?
金 is the Chinese character for the common Korean surname Kim. In Chinese it is read Jīn, so Kim names are written and pronounced as 金 in Chinese.